“Like Long Beach, Rockland County anticipated deficit-reduction bonds to plug its deficit, minimize tax hikes, and receive beneficial state oversight,” Moody’s wrote in its weekly credit outlook. “However, unlike Long Beach, Rockland did not budget for the issuance of deficit reduction bonds and therefore has more leeway, partly because it has until 7 December to finalize its budget, whereas Long Beach has an end of May budget deadline.”

The outlook added, “deficit-reduction bonds are hardly a panacea to a municipality’s financial problems. Unless accompanied by a return to structural balance, these bonds reimburse the government for past deficits while new gaps continue to accumulate. Past uses of deficit-reduction bonds in New York have had varying degrees of success and failure.”

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Capitol Confidential gathers the best coverage of New York politics and puts it all together. Each section - Capitol, The State Worker, New York on the Potomac, and Voices - represents a unique facet of the political scene. The Capitol section features coverage from the Times Union Capitol bureau. The State Worker is dedicated to state worker issues. New York on the Potomac offers news of interest to New Yorkers from Washington. And Voices features the best of everything else, pointing you to columnists and bloggers from across the Web.